Colleges, those bastions of knowledge and creators of degree-wielding job-seekers ready to inundate the urban workforce. Colleges are inclined to support students through graduation and launch them into the working world with newfound knowledge and skills, but with good education comes a higher purpose and engaged citizens, believes St Mira’s College for Girls. The college—located in Pune’s Koregaon Road—prides itself in CSR (citizen social responsibility) initiatives to make the world a better place.
“Social outreach is nothing new to St Mira’s College as it is central to our founding father, Sadhu T.L. Vaswani’s appeal to Give, Give, Give,” says the charmingly versatile Principal Dr. Gulshan Gidwani. “The activities grew out of our celebrations of our spiritual leaders’ birthdays which involved each and every student of each and every class doing some social service. Over time, this got more structured and evolved into year-long, long term engagements,” she goes on to add.
Two-pronged approach at St Mira’s College
Theirs is a two-pronged approach of advocacy and engagement. Advocacy is encouraged through guest speakers who address the entire college during the common morning value education lecture called ‘Sanctuary’. The title itself implies peace, respect and protection. In addition, there are lectures held for specific groups based on their areas of engagement.
As for engagement, every theoretical lecture is transformed into a practical activity. This many be achieved through the NSS student group, which has tree plantation and cleanliness drives, or by collaborating with various NGOs in the form of internships or sustained social outreach programmes.
Collaborations with various NGOs
In 2019, the college focused on year-long activities with various organisations in order to bring about a more sustained, and hence meaningful impact, to the lives of students. As a tribute to the institution’s mentor Dada JP Vaswani, the Department of Business Studies entered into a collaboration in 2018 with Majhi Maitrin Charitable Trust, an NGO working for the upliftment of women from underprivileged sections of society. The students focused on empowering women via Project Pandita, in Kanyashala, Dehu District for two years in a row.
Students of the English Department worked with Aasra — an NGO that engages with the children in low income areas — to mentor students and work with community mapping in Kondwa. Their annual seminar concluded with a fundraiser for the NGO Connecting that works on suicide prevention. The entire proceeds from the sale of tickets for the show Umeed: Colors of Hope by Sunena Gupta from Singapore went to the trust. The students also performed a play Log Kya Kahenge? to de-stigmatize mental health which they will perform in other colleges.
Students in the Sociology department at St Mira’s College are working with an organization called OpenLinks Foundation on structuring digital lesson plans for school teachers and with Mitti ke Rang, an NGO working for empowering widows and their children. They also work with the Jeevit Nadi foundation for cleaning rivers up.
Students of the Accounts Department joined hands with the Spherule Foundation for conducting awareness drives on menstrual hygiene in PMC (Pune Municipal Corporation) schools. They helped in raising donations in kind for the Adult Education Program of DeepGriha Society. A Mega Collection Drive of pre-owned clothes was undertaken by the Law Club under the aegis of the Dept of Accountancy in collaboration with SWaCH – as a part of its curriculum under Corporate Sustainability. They also had an orientation on waste segregation.
Each dept. contributes to society
Students of Political Science made greeting cards for our soldiers in Jammu & Kashmir. 10 more students participated in the 10-day campaign, ‘JAL-MITRA, Save Water- Save Future’ conducted by Firefly Productions, Pune.
Fifty-five students from the Marathi Department assisted as writers for a school for the visually impaired. Departments of BBA and Indies collaborated with NGO Sare Jahan SeAchha for feeding, nurturing and medical aid of stay dogs in Koregaon Park, Kalyaninagar and Wadgaonsheri in Pune. The volunteers of the Animal Rescue group of the college collaborated with Team Indies and Wadgaonsheri Animal Saviours to conduct a census for the local stray dog population and the data was updated in the Indies app.
“Besides social outreach activities, our college students—with guidance from the professors— are also engaged in extension activities like social service programmes in old age homes, visits to institutions focussing on the needs of the visually impaired, visits to orphanages and adoption centres,” says Dr. Gidwani.
Mental health of students is top priority
Considering the stigma association with mental illness and the huge dearth of counsellors, St Mira’s College has been inviting a suicide prevention NGO for sessions, and even sent students as volunteers for their helpline. This culminated in a structured Mental Well Being Programme, which involves three-tiered intervention and prevention measures.
At the first level, every student of the college goes through 6 hours of mental well-being awareness, which aligns with the college’s advocacy approach mentioned earlier. The second tier involves in-depth group therapy and support groups revolving around parent-child relationships, mental illnesses, career decision-making, addiction, social media management and self-care. “We found these emerging issues in our survey that was instituted to assess students’ current needs,” says Dr. Gidwani. The third tier involves individual counselling and therapy with students and their families, where necessary. There is a full-time counsellor on campus, apart from study groups and two specialized counsellors from the field.
A model college for sustainability
An Evaporative Cooling System in place of electricity-guzzling air-conditioners, solar panels and rain water harvesting are only the tip of the sustainability iceberg at St Mira’s College.
“We’ve received assistance from the Adar Poonawala Foundation (CSR arm of Serum Institute of India) by way of dust bins in the garden area, weekly use of the Glutton machine for pick-up of inorganic waste on campus, gloves, masks and garbage disposal vans on a ‘green trek’ to Parvati Hill,” says the Principal.
Students of St Mira’s College clearing plastic and garbage on Parvati Hill during a green trek
The green trek was conducted by the Green Club, a voluntary initiative of faculty and students to advocate and engage students in activities based on the 3 R’s: ‘Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.’ Says Dr. Gidwani, “The trek (where students also cleaned up the hill) aimed to sensitize them to the importance of a clean environment and their role in keeping their surroundings plastic-free. The engagement of the students in such an activity will pave the way for a civic and environmentally conscious society at the macro level and a trash-free Pune city at the micro level.”
During Ganesh Chaturthi, students created a Ganesh idol out of ‘shaadumitti’ (river bed clay). The staff and students involved themselves in an eco-friendly Ganesh Visarjan wherein Bappa was immersed in a tubful of water. After the mitti idol dissolved, the solvent was poured in the flower beds in the garden. Thus, Lord Ganesh met his watery abode, but with no debris polluting any water body.
Waste disposal and cleanliness drive at St Mira’s College in Pune
Worthy of mention are collaborative activities like the Swachhata Pakhwada between January 16-31, 2020 by the NSS unit, Green Club and Student Council of St Mira’s College to commemorate Mahatma Gandhi’s 150th birth anniversary, and to sensitize the staff and students about the importance of cleanliness through advocacy and engagement activities like tree plantation, cleanliness drives, recycling workshops, slogan- and poster-making competitions.
Whether through facilitating charitable acts or making sustainability more accessible, St Mira’s College is giving its students more opportunities to do good and be responsible citizens.
